Welcome to the 2004 Indie RPG Awards!

Introduction

This is the third and last year for the Indie RPG Awards with myself at
the helm. In a few weeks, the baton will be passed and the awards will live
on. It's been a hectic, crazy and fun three years: A project that started
off as work of procrastination (I was working on a game of my own and couldn't
concentrate, so I started making these awards) turned into its own full-blown
"thing", complete with dozens of peer participants (well over 80
at this point), interest, excitement and momentum. I had a lot of fun running
them, and can't wait to see what happens next year.

2004: A Dreadful Year

As always, the awards themselves are a byproduct of a celebration of individual
performance and designer solidarity. While we're not here to find the Ontologically
Best Independently Produced Games, we set out to hammer out a friendly gathering
of Indie industry folk to gather around and throw their 2 bits in on games
that they found to be remarkable for one reason or another.

This year... wow. I gotta say, when games started to roll out in 2004, I
started looking at the task of this year's awards with a little dread and
horror. There were more indie games produced than in previous years. There
were more obviously ground-breaking, supported, and most importantly fun
games this year than in previous years. It doesn't matter which side of the
fence you're on, or where your gaming interests lie: 2004 was Our Year, as
gamers. More games, more supplements, and more support for every gamer out
there; hardcore and rules light, free games and hardcovers, games for combat
sim grognards and heavy in-character drama queens, and everything in between.

Aside from the hell on our wallets, this is normally an excellent turn of
events. However, it's Hell on us when trying to run an awards ceremony, when
you see so many worthy contenders, yet in the end only a few can be recognized.

So this year I'm recognizing as many of these games as possible, not just
the "Top 3". And I again remind the viewers out there that the spirit
of these awards are to take a grand look at everything that came out in the
year, and give out a round of applause for everyone who managed to put together
a game, and maybe check out a few games that you didn't hear about until you
saw them here.

In the end, these awards have little meaning outside the community that gives
and receives them: They don't guarantee sales, they don't shake the RPG industry,
and they don't mean that one game is objectively better than another. However,
they do give a little recognition to the hard-working folks who put their
time and sweat into their products of love and labor. And that is enough to
matter.

How Voting Worked

It was really simple: Some 80+ Peer Reviewers from all walks of life and
all backgrounds (all of whom designed games themselves or worked in the industry,
either independent or mainstream) got together to vote for each award. Each
judge had three votes for each category, and each vote they had had a weight:
5, 3, and 1 points respectively. We tallied the games and supplements that
received more than two votes, and made a list of the winners, in order.

The Listings

We tried when possible to get feedback from the judges on their choices.
In most large gaming awards, we just see a list of winners, with no indication
as to why they were chosen (or why "Game X" was chosen over "Game
Y", etc). The feedback helps people get an idea of why the games were
chosen. Feel free to read through some of it: You might find a game that you
like. Personally, I ended up buying about 5 games after reading the recommendations
and feedback from other judges.